Sunday, February 24, 2013

I put the blocks together and added borders to my scrappy trips quilt this weekend. I am in the midst of piecing the back so it will soon be off to the quilter's house. This quilt is for a person I know who likes to play baseball. There are 3 different baseball fabrics in it and there will be a 4th one on the back.

This quilt came together pretty quickly and I would definately use this pattern again!

My aunt fell a week ago and broke her leg...she had to have surgery and will be in for a long recovery period. I decided to make her a lap quilt to keep her warm while she heals. I put the blocks together on Friday night and put them up on my new design wall (a birthday gift!). Here is a sneak peak--I am not totally in love with this quilt but I am hoping that borders will pull it together. I will put the blocks together and then audition some borders. If any of you have any ideas, please let me know!

The pattern is Yellow Brick Road. I used this pattern a few years ago to make a queen sized batik quilt which I called Off my Beaten Path.

I am going to try to do my stash report on Sundays from now on so I can link up at Patchwork Times.

Fabric used in the last week: 3.8 yards
Total fabric used this year:
40.8 yards
Fabric added to the stash in the last weeks: .25
yards (one fat quarter!)
Total fabric added this year: 54 yards
Net fabric added this
year: 13.2 yards.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

I finished the last few blocks of my Scrappy Trips lap quilt tonight. I have to put the blocks together and decide on a border and then I may quilt this one myself. I have the backing fabric already so this project has come together very quickly.

We celebrated the Family Day long weekend by visiting my daughter in Ottawa. It was very cold and we had to bundle up for outside activities including skating on the Rideau Canal, the world's longest skating rink!

Lots of people were out on a beautiful, sunny, but cold day to enjoy some exercise. Of course, we had to sample a Beaver Tail--a deep fried doughy confection served hot with some cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top.

We skated about 9 km so I am sure we wore off any ill effects of the Beaver Tail!

My husband and I also spent a morning at the Museum of Nature where we looked inside a whale skeleton.

We went to see the ice sculpture display --a part of the Winterlude festival and we had dinner out at this restaurant for my birthday dinner. (I told you it is Birthday Celebration Month!!!)

If you are ever in Ottawa and you like Thai food, this is the place to go!

On another topic, my stash report this week is not pretty...I went shopping at Mad About Patchwork on our way home on Monday and made a few purchases...

A "few" fat quarters, most of which will be used in an upcoming project....

Some yardage for backings an a few 1/2 yard cuts of some new fabrics that I just could not resist...

and some greens to add to my solids collections (I was running low on greens!).

To make matters worse for my stash report, I bought 6 FQ's from the vendor at our quilt guild meeting last week.

I could not resist those blues...

So, here is the damage:

Fabric used in the last 2 weeks: 5.5 yards
Total fabric used this year: 37.0 yards
Fabric added to the stash in the last 2 weeks: 31.25 yards
Total fabric added this year: 53.75 yards
Net fabric added this year: 16.75 yards.

I will be doing some backings in the next week or two so that should make my numbers look a bit better...

AND, I won't be doing any shopping any time soon. I promise. You can hold me to it...

Monday, February 11, 2013

I made some more Scrappy Trips blocks tonight. Now, I have 10 blocks done.

I have the strips sewn together for 5 more blocks and I cut more strips to make 5 more blocks for a total of 20. This quilt top is coming together very quickly...I will try to do a few more tomorrow night. I would like to make another scrappy trips quilt in some brighter colours.

We had a frosty morning again yesterday...I took this picture from a moving car. The trees and bushes were glistening!

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Today was a great day! My friends Karen, Christine and Cathy came over for a sew-in day. Our quilt guild had planned a Quilt til you Wilt day for next Saturday and none of us were able to go for various reasons so I decided to have them come here today. We had 4 sewing machines on the dining room table.

It took a while to get them all to look up from their sewing machines and look at me so I could take this picture. Christine insisted on taking a picture of me too.

Christine worked on quilting a baby quilt.

She managed to finish the quilting and trim it so that she can add the binding this week.

Karen worked on a quilt top for the single bed in the spare bedroom at her house.

By the end of the day, she had finished the top. She would like to add a couple of borders to this top but may need to do some shopping, either in her stash, or at a fabric store.

In progress...

Finished!

Cathy started a new project and finished two blocks. She had all of her cutting done before she arrived.

﻿

And here are her two finished blocks:

Only 14 more to go!

I worked on the borders of my Great Granny Squares quilt top.

I love the colours in this quilt...

I added all three borders today so now this top is finished and ready for the long arm quilter!

We took the top outside to get this picture. It was a bright sunny day today after yesterday's snowstorm.

I gave myself permission to start a new project...this is the first block of a scrappy trips quilt. My Go cutter made quick work of cutting the strips for these blocks. I finished three blocks by the end of the evening and have a good start on 12 more blocks. It should not take too long to finish this quilt.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Last night when I went to bed, there was a skiff of snow on the ground and the big snowstorm was on its way towards us. It started snowing and blowing in the middle of the night and it kept snowing most of the day. The roads outside town were very slippery and there was poor visibility due to the blowing snow, so I stayed home from work today.

﻿

I puttered around the house and made some turkey vegetable soup and gazed out the windows at all the snow.

My very kind neighbour brought his snowblower over and cleared out our driveway. I gave him some soup to thank him and to warm him up after being out in the cold. ﻿

I put the pieced borders together for my Great Granny Square quilt today. Here they are hanging off the side of the ironing board. They have to be trimmed before adding them to the top.

Today, I received not one, but two bunches of tulips for my birthday! One from a friend who was in my wedding party almost 24 years ago and one from the man I married on that day!

The flowers are a breath of Spring on a cold and snowy day.

Tomorrow, I am hosting a sew-in for 3 friends. My husband will be out for the day so there will be a takeover of the kitchen, dining room and living room for sewing!

Thursday, February 7, 2013

This week, I used 11.5 yards of fabric making pillowcases (gifts) and a pieced backing for my "Sewing Baskets" quilt top that I made at BIQR this past fall. I have had the fabric for the backing all ready to go for a few months now and finally got it put together this week.

I saved one of the selvage spool blocks to use as my label:

The center part is a yard of spools fabric that I bought a while ago and thought it would be perfect for this quilt. I pieced a strip of selvage fabric into the backing.

This quilt will be off to the quilters soon. Karen C. will be custom quilting this one. I will be sure to post pictures when I get it back.

Last night, I worked on a pieced border for my Great Granny Squares quilt. Here are all the units --86 of them!--ready to sew together.

I am gettting together with a few friends on Saturday for a sew-in so I hope to finish off the GGS top that day. I have the backing fabric for this quilt already so there should be another good stash reduction report next week.

The last thing on my list before I can start a new project (actually, I have two new projects in mind--who can just do one thing at a time???) is the backing for swoon so it can be taken to the quilter's house.

Here is my stash report for this week:

Fabric used this week: 11.5 yards
Total fabric used this year: 31.5 yards
Fabric added to stash this week: 1 yard (It was a birthday gift! I will be 50 tomorrow.)
Total fabric added this year: 22.5 yards
Net fabric out of the stash: 9 yards.

Funny thing is that the pile of fabric (I mean neatly organized fabric!) does not appear to be any smaller... I will have to keep working on this.

In the meantime, my husband is taking me out for dinner tomorrow night to celebrate my birthday and there will be a family party sometime this weekend. We will celebrate with my daughter later this month--in reality, it is Birthday Celebration MONTH, rather than just a special day! We are in the path of a winter storm tonight and tomorrow--the best gift of all would be a snow day! We will see...

Monday, February 4, 2013

A couple of Saturdays ago, 16 quilters from the Elgin Piecemakers guild got together for a day of sewing and playing with fabric. I just love these days away from it all--I get a lot done with minimal interruptions and get to spend time with my quilting friends. It is always interesting to see what projects others are working on...

Pat was working on these little blue blocks for a quilt for one of her children.

Jacqui assembled three Indian Orange Peel units.

Deb had to do a little un-sewing on her mystery quilt.

Heather was doing some paper-pieced blocks.

Roxene's Easy Street mystery quilt block.

Jessie worked on quilting a child's quilt.

Diane and Pat both made some Farmer's Wife blocks.

Nice table runner, Donna!

Several people worked on charity quilts including Debbie,

Beth,

Joanne,

Shirley, and Pat and I.

Beth and Joanne's Bento Box quilt.

Yvonne

Anne's circular project.

It was a fun and productive day. I am looking forward to our next Bee Day!